Augur asks are Prediction Markets Profitable?

Augur asks are Prediction Markets Profitable?

Augur (REP) or Reputation is proving the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity accurate. This cryptocurrency’s value has apparently shot up because of news stories connecting it to presidential assassination.

One of Augur’s prediction markets is taking bets on the assassinations of such figures as U.S. President Donald J. Trump (R-New York), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), Golden Girls actress Betty White, and Warren Buffett. That has even attracted attention from such mainstream news outlets as Newsweek.

That questionable publicity gave Augur’s Reputation altcoin, a Coin Price of $19.83 on August 11 2018. The Coin Price led to a Market Capitalization of $218.098 million and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $4.204 million on the same day. All of that was achieved on a Circulating Supply of 11 million REP tokens.

Therefore, negative publicity can increase the value of cryptocurrencies. An obvious reason why that occurred is many people are interested in wagering and predicting the future. Journalists called attention to Augur’s efforts to do that.

Using wagers and Blockchain to Hedge Cryptocurrency

Augur is not trying to encourage anybody to kill politicians, billionaires, or TV stars.

Instead, the company is trying to figure out what the odds or likelihood of such violence is, so it can hedge against them. The prediction markets are really a data collection tool.

A predictions market is a futures market based on estimations of the outcomes of events. There are a number of Blockhain prediction markets out there including Stox (STX), Gnosis (GNO), and Sharpe Capital (SHP).

Simply put, a prediction market uses wagering to collect data about an unfolding event. A blockchain prediction market rewards those who make accurate predictions with cryptocurrency. For example, Sharpe Capital rewards accurate stock and commodities...